T-Mobile's myTouch line of phones have evolved nicely from plasticky looking mid-tier phones to flagship devices for the carrier. Though made mostly of plastic, the myTouch 4G Slide nonetheless looks and feels like a solid, quality smartphone with a less busy design than the myTouch 4G, its keyboard-less companion. The back is modern looking and minimalist, while the front is techno meets Art Deco.

Inside, we have basically the same brains as the top-of-the-line HTC Sensation 4G: a dual core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 768 megs of RAM and 4G HSPA+. The phone has WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a GPS that works with Google Maps and third party navigation apps. The phone runs Android OS 2.3.4 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 3.0 software.

The myTouch 4G Slide falls behind the pack-leading Sensation 4G when it comes to display size and resolution. The myTouch 4G Slide has a 3.7" 800 x 480 LCD of average quality vs. the Sensation's 4.3" qHD 960 x 540 Super LCD. Despite the same internals, the Slide benchmarks 200 points lower than the Sensation 4G in Quadrant, but it's fast enough overall.

The Slide's claim to fame is the improved 8 megapixel camera that actually uses a better sensor and lens combo vs. other HTC phones (sorry Sensation owners). The result is excellent photos and sharp 1080p video. No, it still can't beat the Nokia N8, but it's better than other top US camera phones. There's plenty of good software to go along with the improved camera hardware: HDR shot mode, BurstShot, SweepShot and a zero lag shutter.

The QWERTY keyboard isn't among our favorites. It's not terrible, but the keys lack sufficient tactile feedback and the backlight doesn't come on unless it's really dark. The 4 row keyboard beats pecking away at a small keyboard on a 3.7" display, even if Swype is included.

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myTouch 4G Slide Video Review

Conclusion

We can't help but like this well made dual core Android smartphone. Sure, we'd like a clickier keyboard and the front design is a bit busy (please get rid of that Genius button!), but the phone is fast, well made and the camera is excellent. Top it off with Netflix support and T-Mobile's zippy 4G HSPA+ network and you've got an excellent Android phone for texters and shutterbugs.